Valkyrie/Main
The Valkyrie is the fast attack gunship for all three empires. It can hold up to 2 crew members and 4 passengers. (Pilot, Front Gunner, and 4 Rumble Seats, 2 on each side.) Certifications Valkyrie Strategies and Tactics When defending, pull a valkyrie and have a couple squad mates hop in with 3 AT mines or 2 bricks C-4. Drop them on top of enemy sunderers surrounding the base and have your squad mates throw explosives on the way down. Have them toss a grenade down after the explosives and watch the chaos ensue as your squad mates safely float down and enemy spawn points are destroyed. Consider this a Blackhawk Helicopter... with jet engines. You can carry 4 soldiers who can fire out of the sides, and a gunner who fires from a frontal nose-mounted turret. The best way to play this vehicle is to get an "air-assault team": a pilot and gunner who will stay in the ship at all times, and four "air-assault troopers". Fly low and move quickly, since this vehicle cannot take much damage. Here are some tips: Planning Your Air Assault Before spawning the Valkyrie, choose a facility you want to defend/attack, and place a personal waypoint at the spot you want to drop your troopers. Be precise with waypoint placement, as you will be dropping on the waypoint. Rooftops are a great place, especially the roof of a building containing a generator or capture point. Also, dropping an Infiltrator on the top of an Outpost tower is a great tactical move! Squad up! For best effect, you, and everyone who will be flying (gunner and assault troopers) should be in a squad. Using a headset with a microphone is extremely useful with these types of operations! Getting in Spawn the Valkyrie and pick everyone up. The gunner and pilot should stay with the vehicle unless it is a one-way attack. Fallen air-assault troopers can spawn back in the Valkyrie as long as you are in it and they are part of your squad. En-route to the dropzone Fly low and avoid bases! You have an impressive advantage if you reach your target without being spotted. While flying to the dropzone, avoid firing any guns, as this will give away your position and attract attention... something you don't want! It also uses ammo, which is important to the next step. Spending some certs for the Stealth module helps with this. Air Assaulting When you reach your target (preferably a not-so-big firefight, since your ship won't last long. For larger battles a Galaxy is better for this role), there are two ways to drop troops. If you prefer flying low or want to look cool, either land on or hover just over your dropzone. (by now, the gunner and passengers should be firing at anyone in sight to clear the landing zone). The second way to drop troops is, when nearing the dropzone, fly as high as is possible (~700m in most continents) and drop your troops from a height to try and avoid fire. Doing this will keep you from the ground fire that the previous method attracts, but you are a tasty target for ESFs. After dropping your troops If you have taken lots of damage coming in, go ahead and jump out and fight. Otherwise, fly away from the facility and circle around a short distance away (you can land and repair if you or your gunner is an Engineer). As long as you are flying around, your squad can respawn in the Valkyrie, and you can then drop them back into the fight. Extraction Once you have completed what you set out to do (or you get beaten and decide to attack elsewhere), there are two ways to pick everyone back up. You can fly in to a designated "extraction point" (place a squad beacon for your guys on the ground) and pick them up. This turns the pick-up into a mini-game, with your troopers trying to get to the landing zone and protect it while you fly in. Or you can start flying to your next dropzone (marked with a new personal waypoint) and your passengers can use "redeploy" to spawn back in the Valkyrie on the move! Crew Classes Something to note with the Valkyrie, is that it benefits your team if one of the designated crew (gunner or pilot) should be an Engineer (to fix the Valkyrie), and the other crewmember should be a Medic with the Triage certification (Granted by default, level 1 is all that's needed). This will allow everyone else in the vehicle to heal over time as long as they are riding. Light Close Air Support (L/CAS) Lastly, there is one other way to use the Valkyrie: A cheap alternative to the Liberator! Get your gunner and pilot (an Engineer and Medic), and have all of your four passengers equip Heavy Assault. Fly over enemy sunderers and tanks and let your gunner and backseat rocket launchers take care of them! If your friends don't mind spending some certs, have two of the missile troopers get anti-air lock-on missiles, and (optional but helpful) two with anti-ground lock-on missiles. Have one missile type per side. Alternatively, you can focus on four rockets of the same type for increased firepower. The Valkyrie cannot take as much damage as the Galaxy, so you must be a lot more cautious when piloting this vehicle. however, being more maneuverable and a much smaller target than the Galaxy has it's advantages. In the right set of hands, this vehicle can turn the tide of a battle... make sure that set of hands is yours! How to Cert the Valkyrie Utility Slot: *For most pilots, there are only two real choices here: IR Flares are always a good thing, and the Fire Suppression system is quite handy... this is up to personal preference. Scout Radar, while a neat compliment, is not really useful unless you are using this vehicle as a poor-man's Liberator/Rapid Attack Craft - in which case it is actually quite good. Defensive Slot: *All of these options are good, but again, we see two main choices, and it is up to how you will be flying this vehicle. Auto Repair is nice to have, especially if you don't play Engineer while flying, but this is slow and requires you to not be taking damage. Composite Armor is one of the two most useful of the three options here, as it allows your rather weak Valkyrie to take a little more punishment. The second most useful option here (especially for night raids) is the Stealth set. Certing this up well will allow you to drop troops behind the lines without being detected (with a vehicle this fragile, better to not be shot at in the first place!)... as long as your flying is good. Performance Slot: *There are only two choices, and it is recommended that you try both out in the VR training room. The Evasiveness Airframe is excellent for getting to and away from the drop zone, and is preferred by "Gunship" pilots. The Hover Airframe, on the other hand, allows more precise drops, enables auto-hover, and allows for better maneuvering when picking up troops, and is thus preferred by "Air Assault" Pilots. Pick the one that best fits your playstyle, flying style, or intended role.